Zsh

The z-shell, or zsh, is by far the most commonly used shell on redbrick, with a grand total of 1,620 users preferring it. However, although there are many zsh users, there are only about five or six .zshrc files floating around on Redbrick, with everyone having got one from a friend from the year before, or some such silly excuse, with the end result that everyone has the same prompt and only those bold enough to duck their heads into man pages and such like can even hope to change it.

The reasons non-zsh users cite for using other shells are wide and varied, from "keeping my shell trim" (ref. Colmmacc on bash) to "tcsh is the handy way to get out of signing that damned [login] agreement" (ref. Shadow on tcsh). Zsh's auto-correction facilities are a boon to any typo-stricken finger, and generations of zsh advice have piled up on Redbrick should you need guidance in the way of the Z.

Further information on the z-shell can be obtained from the zsh manpage, and of course from the official zsh website.